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Shoes

Nike Server’s & Vibram’s – ‘Repair If You Care’ Event

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My friend Max once wore his Air Max 95 ‘Chilis’ into work. They hadn’t been worn for a while, so unfortunately like a lot of older Nike shoes, they began to crumble. Scraping away the left foot’s midsole into the bin, he looked at them with a sense of loss. He was about to throw them away till I asked, “Can I have them if you’re just going to chuck them?” to which he replied, “Yeah sound”. A standard reply in the halls of shoe retail.

I had them tucked away in my cupboard in a JD string bag, hoping I could do a sole swap when I had the time. I took them back home a few months later, tinkering with them in the shed. I managed to get some more of the midsole off, but the shoe still looked worse-for-wear. They took a place next to my Air Max 2003s which I had bought off Depop back in 2016. They too had suffered the same fate as they started falling apart when I was at the gym. There they sat, two Nike shoes out of action. Hunched over on the benches, awaiting the day where the Coach would call them back into play. I hadn’t had much experience with shoe restoration, having partly reglued the soles of a pair of Jordan 14’s and a pair of Ice Cream Boardflip 2’s that I de-soled and took down to the local cobbler. I could manage the removal part of process, yet needed to improve my fixing portion. Quite metaphorical if I do say so myself, luckily this short piece is about shoes and not a tell-all though.  

I was scrolling my IG feed when I had seen Nike Server doing an event at the Vibram London Academy. It sounded perfect, an opportunity to bring back to life two previously retired Nikes. The sustainability hashtags were about to go off. It was a three-day event running from the Thursday till the Saturday and having the time to kill, I went up on the first day.

This was a pair I’d never seen before. Someone told me the name but annoyingly I can’t remember!
Selection of shoes for repair on the first day of the event. Peep the waffle’s in that OG colourway

Arriving at Waterloo, I then grabbed the tube to Old Street. It wasn’t a part of London I was familiar with having never spent a night dancing my socks off at XOYO, so thank goodness for 21st century tech. I arrived at the shop where it seemed relatively busy. I whipped out the shoes and began discussing with Mr Nike Server himself which midsoles would work best with which shoe. I opted with going for the larger yellow midsole for the Chilis, thinking the contrasting yellow and red would work well. Then for the 2003s, I went for a slightly less in-your-face cup soles in order to cover up the glue markings. Having not realised that the shoes would be fixed and ready to go the same day, I handed the shoes over to the team behind the counter. It cost £45 a pair which I thought was reasonably and would eventually go onto find out was a solid price compared to the usual £70 for a midsole repair. You can’t put a price on sustainability though, right?

“Should be about 6 weeks mate”, the London-sounding Vibram cobbler announced as the payment went through. I walked out the shop, two shoes down but eager to see what the result would be. It wouldn’t be till around 7 weeks later that I would find out. Having followed the Vibram London Academy on IG I did get a glimpse at my pair of Air Max 2003’s as it had been uploaded with a selection of other shoes. A few days later I received a text saying:

I headed up the Wednesday, feeling like I was about to be reunited with an old flame. Sad? Possibly but being into creps isn’t always glitz and glamour, more time it’s just a bunch of people who are enthusiastic about a piece of cloth glued to rubber. If you really want to boil it down to its essence, but where’s the romance in that. I thought of it more as two pieces of iconic design, hidden in the shadows awaiting the day to once again rest between foot and concrete, roaming the streets of this diverse, beautiful world.

The selection of Five Fingers in store

As I made it back to Old Street Tube station, my phone remained in pocket as I was now more familiar with the area. It was humidly-hot that day, the London streets bright and colourful with an array of sun dresses coupled with shades. Seeing the yellow Vibram store logo up ahead, I was merely few steps away from finally seeing the shoes in person. As I stepped in, the team seemed to be in better spirits this time. Perhaps it was the combination of the blue skies and the fact they weren’t swamped with youths bringing in their beaten-up trainers. They received a total of 94 pairs from that event if I remember correctly. That’s a lot of new hybrid Vibram’s walking about the pavements and a whole lot more shoes rescued from landfill. That works out to about 30 odd pairs each day during the event, that’s no small feat.

the 95 Hybrid’s fresh out the shop
The shoe sits perfectly on the rolling gait midsole

Whilst they looked for my two pairs, I took a browse at their Five Finger selection. I’d been looking at getting a pair of minimal footwear since hearing about the barefoot running movement a year before. What better time to try a pair on than in the London store itself. I tried a selection on making sure that they fit correctly. Putting on the V-train 2.0s after the more minimal indoor/gym iteration, I knew this one would last a whole lot longer due to the heavier tread pattern and more rugged upper. This would also leave the door open for any possible future trail runs. They were a long step away from my Salomon Speedcross 4’s, but would be a great way of building up foot and ankle strength.

my bad boy five fingers that keep low to the ground but that ground feel high

Having now worn them for a week at the gym, I can truly say these have been one of, if not my best gym shoe to date. No longer do I have to walk around in my socks or some overly cushioned trainers. Ground-feel is what everyone should be after when weight training at the gym and these certainly provide enough of that. As someone who’s into creps, it also veers round the issue of having to wear your gym shoes on the journey to, as the five fingers are easily packable. If only I had known this a few years ago, it would have saved me spending half of my retail life walking around in my Pegasus 38 Gore-Tex editions. A great shoe however, one that deserved some rest from my average 13K steps a day.

Overall, the event and the shoes were a success. I ended up with two unique Nike trainers and a pair of minimal footwear shoes. Collecting the shoes also gave me a reason to travel on the Elizabeth line which was great experience in and of itself. If you know me, I’m all about good experiences. Would I recommend the re-soling process to a friend, most definitely!

The 95 in the Elizabeth Line tube tunnel
The new Elizabeth seat design providing a great backdrop to highlight the 03’s
Shoes

Nike Air Max Deluxe – The One That Got Away

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The Air Max Deluxe released back in 2018 to mixed reviews. I was working at the Size? store in Bristol at the time, and therefore witnessed this reception first hand. I remember seeing them on shelves thinking they were a decent looking shoe. Not having seen them before, I was intrigued by the shoes unique upper. I was sold by the interesting “oil spill” colourways but was put off by the £160 price point. At the time the Nike Vapormax Plus were flying off the shelves. Although they were £170, we could barely keep enough stock and were no doubt our bestselling shoe. I wasn’t the biggest fan of them myself, the Vapormax line had been a cool concept to start off with but practically speaking, the sole didn’t feel stable enough for me. Whilst an impressive feat of technology, they were more of a gimmick in my eyes. That’s just my opinion though, I have spoken to a few people who have used them as their daily running shoe.

Nike Vapourmax Plus

For the most part, I watched the Deluxe’s sit on shelves. They sold steadily, but it wasn’t till they went on sale that they really started to pick up. I would glance over at them every day, tempted by the loud colourways. The blue, white and orange pair had really spoken to me, two of my favourite colours on one shoe, it was a no-brainer. I went up to the stockroom on my lunchbreak and luckily we had one pair of UK12s. I put them on and to my dismay, they felt awkward. The two little nubs on the back of the inner heal didn’t bode well with me and the upper seemed stiff. Unimpressed, I placed them back on the shelf and left behind the thought of owning a pair.

Days later, the love for them had still lingered. Each shift I’d find myself picking them up off the sale rack. “Give them another chance” I thought as if they were a past lover … after all, beauty is pain. That week they did garner quite a lot of attention, they seemed to be the favourite colourway after the black and iridescent joints. Every time a customer would ask to try them on, I would breathe a sigh of relief when they didn’t say UK12. That was until my luck ran out. I had a gentleman in his late 30s come up to me, an unexpected choice for such a customer but a solid one nonetheless. He’d asked for a size 12 and my heart sank. As I climbed up the stairs and into the stockroom, I convinced myself that there was no chance he would actually go through with buying them. No way. Impossible. I brought them down where he tried on the left foot, took a few steps and looked at his wife. He said, “yeah these are good, I think I’ll take them”. I looked back at him smiling through the pain.

Convinced he was going to bale last minute; I took them up to the till and watched the transaction being put through. I needed to see for myself that the pair was gone, like some form of therapy. My colleague bagged them up, he knew I had been mulling over that pair for some time so had a little smile on his face. The Deluxe’s eventually left the store never to be seen again. A few months later the “No Sleep on Tour” Skepta collaboration came out, but it just wasn’t the same.

Nike Air Max Dealuxe x Skepta “No Sleep On Tour”

A whole year later and the World was a very different place. We were about a month and a half into lockdown and it had been time since I had bought any shoes. Having more time to browse, it was hard not to find steals as people were worried and letting pairs go for cheap. I came across the Deluxe’s in the fabled colourway for £60. They were practically new, so it was an easy decision. A few days later the Post man knocked. It had been a long time coming. I smiled and grabbed the delivery off the floor. Taking them into my room I carefully opened the package, seeing those blue lines shimmer through the slit I just created. I ripped the package open, hoisting the shoe up into the air like Gollum holding the ring in the fiery pits of Mount Doom. They were mine, my own, my precious… Nah, I’m kidding but I was certainly gassed.

Accurate portrayal of me finally owning a pair of those blue and orange Air Max Deluxe’s

It was sunny day, so I whacked them on ignoring my already questionable lockdown outfit. They were comfier than I expected. They must have just needed some time to break them in. “I must thank the previous user via the Depop review” I thought to myself. Since then, they heavily featured in the rotation as they coupled well with the baggy Calvin Klein denim I had found on eBay that same month.

I now vowed to try and pick up any Air Max Deluxe I come across that goes for less than £50. Like some budget version of Thanos collecting the infinity stones. Currently, I sit on two pairs of the blue and orange colourway, as well as the ‘Midnight Navy’ pair that I picked up last week. I recently was watching the Complex Sneaker Podcast where one of the hosts Brendan Dunne, was of the opinion that they did in fact flop. With the US being less of an Air Max market than the UK and Europe, I can imagine him being correct. The Deluxe managed to do well for a first-time reissue, certainly grabbing an entirely new audience that ended up loving this lesser-known Silhouette.

@toni_brugnoli making the Deluxe’s look good.

I don’t see them about too much anymore, most of them having been mashed up by the festival circuit the same year they were purchased. No longer do they traverse the pavements of Manchester or anywhere else for that matter. I don’t that mind that though, in fact I almost prefer it. I’ll keep wearing my pair, feeling happy whenever I look down at them wrapped around my feet.

Me on that fateful day.